Why are we so different?
by Larxene Lupin
Summary: A teenage firebender has taken a mission to spy on the earthbenders for war plans. But while he's there he might find more than he bargained for when he ends up having to go to an earthnation boarding school. Can he stand the heat?
1. Departure

"The earth nation guards are standing there, like dead peacocks;How pathetic." Kyo whispered from the front of the ship staring through his telescope. "They don't seem to have very good guards do they?"

"You couldn't really expect much out of their breed, all they can do is make a sand castle."

"Yeah I guess that you're right. This mission shouldn't be a problem at all." Kyo brushed his messy black hair out of his face, "I just hope that they don't expect me to bend."

"Then just say you can't, you idiot." Commander Akito muttered, "It shouldn't be that difficult for you to figure that out."

Kyo scowled and continued to search, "Do I need to _swim _to get there?"

"You will if you get smart with me." Akito smacked him in the back of the head, "Little closer!" He instructed the sailor driving the boat. He then turned back to Kyo, "Alright. You are going to be going through the north wall, once there, you will need to hide and shoot these darts at the near guards. They have a strong dose of sleeping potion from a fire nation brewer, do you understand me?"

"Yes sir." He said pocketing the darts, "Once there?"

"You will take a vacant spot in the nearest inn. And while you are on the island, I want you to report anything and everything you find important. Including location, information on the brigades and armadas, and also any slight details including food resources, weapons, and reinforcements, do you understand me?"

"Yes sir." Kyo said in a deep bow, "I understand it all completely."

"You will depart once you have received the right clothing," He said gesturing to the closet, "Slip into them, don't let them see your eyes," seeing that Kyo's eyes had a faint red tint of a fire bender."  
"But what if someone sees?"

"You will not let anyone see them!" He said angrily, getting ready to strike him, "You will keep undercover; whether you like it or not."

"Yes sir…" He said with a transparent tone, "I will not let a soul lay eye onto mine."

"Good. Go get dressed now." Commander Akito shoved Kyo to the door leading to his cabin, "They are sitting on the bed."

"Yes sir." He replied once again very plainly.

Kyo; a sixteen year old fire bender of high standards, was asked(commanded) to act as a earth bender resident, to research the qualities of the nations community, and find any information on weaknesses, so as to plan the fire nation's next attack.

Kyo walked over to his bed slouching as he grabbed the earth bender garb from his cot, slipping off his upper robe he grabbed the shirt and slipped it over his head, when making his hair messier than it had already been.

While trying to flatten his hair, he began to wonder;_ What if I fail? What if I am discovered? _The thought of failing his task made him shudder, surely a loss would mean a beating… He had already had many scars from previous whippings he had taken while in fire nation training, but for something this big, it could possibly mean death. _I have to succeed. Nothing will stand in my way! _He had gotten so rough with thought, that he ripped his sleeve as he had tried to slip his head through it on accident. Cursing loudly he tried to mend the sleeve, "Stupid clothes, they need to be sturdier," Though he already knew that it was his fault.

He slipped on the murky dirt brown leggings and tried to raise his shoulder slightly so that the sleeve wouldn't droop down seeing that it was still ripped.

He walked out onto the ship dock to see that Akito was still patrolling the guard's actions. "I'm ready to go sir." He said still trying to lift his shoulders.

Akito turned and he looked slightly taken back, a frown slapped over his face.

"What's wrong sir?" Kyo asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well there was a slight set back; it seems that only adults over eighteen can stay in the Inn."

"Well that's thick. Why don't you just attack and force them?"

"Because we don't have any arrangements for reinforcements, and that stupid Katara girl had given them some some-what encouragement, they aren't frightened to fight anymore. Pride can sometimes be more powerful than arrows…"

"I see, so how are the arrangements going to be pressed on?"

"You will be associated into boarding school."

"Well that should- BOARDING SCHOOL!"

Akito smacked him smartly across the face, "Yes – boarding school. And if you get snappy with me, we will throw you off the boat and you will get run over with it!"

Kyo rubbed his face, "Yes sir… Sorry sir." He muttered sourly.

"We have already assigned you to attend."

"I understand sir. Does that mean that I am going to have to _learn _while I am there?"

"To not participate will raise suspicions. Already coming out of nowhere is bad enough." He roughly patted him on the back, "You will go there and act as a regular student, you will communicate with as many students as you can to achieve the mission's goal, do you understand me?"

"Yes sir."

"Very well, take this." He handed him a ripped piece of paper with an address written on it, "This is the address of the school."

The boat soon reached the opposite of the island, where a shallow peninsula poked out about half a mile from the main part of the island where everyone lived.

"There are guards at the wall when you reach there, shoot the darts and then reach the school. They will be expecting your arrival."

Kyo nodded, "Well I'm out." He waited for the bride to sprout from the ship, slinging his messenger bag over his shoulder; he walked down to the small sprouting peninsula, walking off to the wall.

When he reached the outside of the wall, he noticed that there were indeed two guards standing on either end, watching for visitors and intruders.

He grabbed the pocketed darts and then started to load one into his launcher. He then placed an end to his lips, aiming for a precise spot in the guard's neck, right below the helmet. He blew a puff of air and shot the dart, he had shot with great speed and swift actions. The guard started to sway from the sleeping dose and soon collapsed onto the floor asleep.

The opposite guard looked over and leaned down to examine the guard, but while there, Kyo shot the guard in the shin; it made the guard's leg numb, and perhaps a bit woozy, but had nowhere close to as much effect as it had on the opposite guard. The guard collapsed to the floor on his knees, trying desperately to get back to his feet.

Kyo walked out of his covering and smirked to the guard, "Well you have yourself in a bit of a problem don't you."

"Help me please." The guard said in a helpless tone.

"Okay, I'll ease the pain." He raised a hand which went on fire; the guard gasped and watched the flame dance. "Sweet dreams." Kyo said as he shot the flame. And now to guard fell to the ground, helpless and motionless, never to see that bright flame again.

Kyo took no care to the guard's death, but then did the same to the sleeping guard. He dragged the two guards to the beach and pondered how he would get rid of them. He simply dropped them to the where the ocean could sweep them away. He walked off.

He walked back to the wall and wondered how he would get past, "Darn…" He thought for a moment, "Ah." He saw a small ladder leading to the guard post, "Surprising that those stupid guards didn't notice a thing. Rest in peace you idiot." He shot the dart at the watch guard, he collapsed from his post. Kyo then climbed to the top of the post and pressed the button that opened the guard door.

The door collapsed down and slammed in a dusty heap. "Okay," He jumped down from the guard tower and walked into the small earth kingdom, "Now where's this stupid school and how'll I see it in the dark?"

**Well, the first chapter has been put up finally! I know that it is really boring – but once I get the next chapter up with the other characters, It'll get good – I swear!**


	2. Roomates

Kyo had taken his time to try and find the school, but it had still taken him about one to two hours to find the school. Kyo had had a hard time finding his way through the shrouded darkness, but ended up running into the polished wooden door, "My nose…" He muttered as he walked in.

But his walk was once again interrupted by the decoration in the school's entrance hall. Everything was rather plaited in smooth brown tile, or black shining marble. He walked in; examining every inch of the room and ignoring the 'look-not-touch-rule'.

But his scanning stopped when he heard some distant rhythmic thumps. _Thump… thump… thump… _He stood his ground only to find that it was an old man about in his seventies. He was dressed in long robes of earthy brown and lush meadow green; these of course must have been the school's colors. He carried a smooth, sanded, polished, mahogany cane, with had many knots in the body, but a large one at the very top where the man held it.

"Who's there?" The old man asked in a raspy dry voice.

Kyo just blinked, "Er… I'm new here; sorry I got in so late."

The old man walked slowly up to Kyo, but he had to squint to see him in the candlelight, but basically all he could tell was that someone was standing there. "So you came to apply to school?"

Kyo nodded, but the man didn't reply. He rolled his eyes then said, "Yes-I-am-new-here." He said it slowly and clearly for the man's ears to swallow.

Over the few minutes, the man finally nodded, "Follow me." He grabbed Kyo's hand."

Kyo tried to keep hold with the man, but it was difficult to keep to his level of height seeing that Kyo was about a foot and a half taller than him, but that was how it was with him with most people. He was just too tall for his own good.

As he walked, he accidentally tripped over the man's cane as he walked; Kyo fell all over himself into a heap on the floor until he recollected himself.

"Watch where you step." The man said simply to Kyo's stumble.

"Ow…" He limped for a second; his ankle had jammed into the wood, making a dent in the man's cane. "Oh s-"

"Shh… There are other pupils here sleeping you know."

"Yeah but-" His foot rammed into a flower pot, which was complete iron, "AH! CRAP!" He held his foot.

The man hit him in the head with his cane, (As if Kyo wasn't beaten up enough,) "Must I remind you to BE QUIET?"

"Oh god, you'd be screaming too if you hit your- OW!" The man hit him with the cane again.

"Well then watch where you're going.."

"Well yeah but," But then it hit him. He had an idea, a brilliant idea, "I can't tell where I'm going because… I'm blind." The lie just rolled off his tongue.

"Ah…" This didn't seem to strike the man as surprising at all. "Well you sure looked like it." He said stubbornly.

"Stupid old man…" Kyo muttered.

As they reached the end of the corridor, the man walked left to a long hall way, with many doors left and right, all with a number engraved above the door in golden letters. The man stopped in front of room number 813. "You will be bunking in this room, it is currently available."

"Oh… So does that mean I get the room to myself?"

He shook his head, "No you will have a roommate."

_Drat it…_ He followed the man in. Kyo looked around the room, where there were many unraveled scrolls, parchment, empty ink bottles, and calligraphy brushes. But in the middle of the floor, he saw a lump, sleeping lazily.

"Wake up Sana…." The man said, poking her with his cane. The lumped stirred annoyed. A hand popped out and did thumbs down. "Get up." The man repeated, jabbing the lump harder this time.

"Ow! That was in the ribs!" Out of the bed emerged a girl about 15, with long brown hair in a ponytail as she rose from her bed from an interrupted sleep.

Kyo's jaw dropped, _A GIRL! WHY A GIRL? _

"Sana this is Kyo, your roommate."

Sana rubbed her eyes and looked at him with drooping eyes, but then they popped wide open, "Er… Sir I apologize but…. This is a boy."

"Yes, and as one of our best students, you shall be helping him around the school."  
"Well, no offense but… Couldn't one of the boys help?"

"_Well no offense, _but boys aren't always the most mature when helping a disabled student." He said it so freely, "For you see, Kyo here is blind."

Sana blinked, "Oh…." She didn't know what to say.

"Just help him around the school yes?"

She nodded uncertain that she still liked the idea of a boy as her roommate.

As the man left, the room went silent. Kyo found his way to the bed, (Sure not to hit anything,) and got into his bed. Without looking back at Sana, he slowly fell asleep, hoping this was just some bad nightmare.


	3. Secrets Shown

**Well chapter three is up, and while I have the chance, I am going to say something that some people may have been wondering. No I am not going to make Aang, Sokka, and Katara main characters, but by the end I may add them in. And just for your preference when you read this chapter, Sana is going to be showing her real sides in this chapter, but of course you will learn more and more every chapter about everyone.**

**And so far people seem to like Kyo, don't worry. He's not going to go anywhere!**

Kyo woke up the next morning with a wiped memory, "Where am I?" He mumbled still half-asleep.

"In the academy." Sana said to him from her area on the other side of the room as she stared out the window, she was still in her pajamas. "Remember?" she asked him in a calm and steady voice.

_Does she always get up this early? What a geek… _He thought to himself, "Yeah. I remember, you would forget things in the mornings too if you just woke up."

She pretended to think, "Nope, never." She sat up and walked across the room.

But then Kyo realized something, _Ah crap. How am I supposed to get dressed with her in the room? _

But it seemed like Sana could read minds, "I left some clothes for you on the end of your bed, they are about two feet in front of you. They had left the clothes for you since they said that you came without luggage." Kyo thought she had memorized saying that.

"Well thanks, _I suppose…" _He muttered under his breath. He snatched up his clothes with great agility. But hoped that she didn't see that so that she wouldn't raise suspicions.

Sana sighed and waved him away, she walked off to a trunk that was wrapped in worn leather, and the metal was slightly rusted. She opened it and grabbed up some clothes that were splotched with small little red dots on the left sleeves, which Kyo guessed, was blood; _do they beat the kids around here! _

She took no notice to the stains, and then dug around in the chest again and pulled out some mud brown leggings. She placed them on the floor and started to pull off her shirt.

Kyo cursed silently and quickly turned around, but ended up falling all over himself. _Ah crap… Why'd it have to be a girl! WHY! WHY! WHY! _

Sana gave him a peculiar look, but just continued until she was fully dressed. She walked over to where Kyo was still lying on the floor staring at the wall, "Are you dead?"

"NO! I am not dead!" He collected himself back together and then he grabbed his clothes once again.

Sana sighed and walked back over to her trunk, digging around once more she grabbed out a ball of what looked like white cotton strands. She pulled off about ten feet of it, tore it off, and then in half, and began to tie each strand around her hands.

_Ah. She's protecting her knuckles; I guess that earth bending is a lot of physical strength when they aren't throwing pebbles… _

Sana finished both of her hands, also examining them closely for a hint of whether they were too tight or not. She smiled and then walked over to Kyo, "You should've been dressed by now."

He quickly jerked his head away so that she wouldn't see his eyes, but pretended to think that she was in that direction, "Well… I suppose I should have." _Now how am I supposed to get dressed with her in the room?_ Sana gave him that curious smile, as if she were reading his mind.

"I'll be outside when you're done, so we can drop by and grab your walking stick and glasses."

"Huh? Oh… Yeah." _I really need to sound more helpless. But too bad for me now, she's the problem I should be worrying about right now!_

Sana walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.

Kyo took his own time to get into his clothes, the more to make his disguise accurate. But while he was getting dressed, he had the most peculiar thoughts buzzing through his head.

As he pulled on his shirt (With his arms through the sleeves, not his head!) he thought about that awkward moment, _and why'd she do that. _But that was a stupid question, _because I'm pretending to be blind… Sheesh, it took me that long to figure that out! She doesn't know I can see her… _He flattened his shirt, and then started to put on his leggings, but then that past moment flashed through his mind. He now felt proud, yet jaded. Proud that he had looked away, yet he was started to disagree with turning away. He was drowned in confusing emotions. _Just a part of being a guy I suppose…_

He stumbled over his legs as he walked to the door, (Not on purpose I might add.) He found that Sana was; as she said, waiting outside the door for him.

"Ready to go?" she asked with a warm and sincere smile.

_Okay, so she isn't that bad… Good shape too. _He felt like smacking himself for that. "Oh, um… Yeah, I'm ready."

"Okay then." Sana grabbed his hand.

Kyo flinched; it had been so long since someone had touched him… Or at least in a way as not to hurt him. "Um… What are you doing?"

"Leading you." She said blankly.

"Oh… Yeah… Right." He let her _lead _her to the pharmacy; where he received his glasses and his walking stick. But he refused the walking stick, though they insisted. _Great… I'm stuck with this worthless pole that doesn't do squat… _

"Are you ready to go to class?" Sana asked as she _helped _him out the pharmacy door.

"Yeah…" _Now what am I going to **do **there?_

They reached class, which was outside. There were floor mats where two were standing on each and others at the sidelines that were watching. The two on the mats were sparring using hand combat. Kyo saw that Sana wasn't necessarily in the frightened kind of mood he was, she looked yearning. But that look was smacked off her face when she saw in the corner; three tall boys about sixteen were shoving a smaller, younger boy in between.

"What jerks…" Kyo said watching them.

"What?" Sana turned.

_Oh right… _"Uh, nothing."

Sana frowned, but then shrugged and started to walk over to the group of bullies. "HEY!" She caught their attention, they didn't turn. "HELLO! I'M TALKING TO YOU!" She gritted her teeth, "Such ignorance…" She tapped one of the shorter boys that she could reach on the shoulder. He turned with a stone cold expression, "What?"

"Leave him alone." She said clearly.

"What?" The boy and his other friends turned, crossing their arms.

"I said, 'leave… him… alone!'"

_I knew girls were freaks… But this is ridiculous._

"And what are you going to do about it?"

"Stop you."

The boys all laughed, "That's a good one."  
Sana smirked evilly, "You think I'm joking?"

"Even if you were I wouldn't care."

"Explain that to my fist." She lifted her hand, and caught flesh as she punched him in the nose.

The boy that caught a broken nose stopped as he held it in pain, while his two thug friends went after Sana as she ran to evade any in coming punches.

Everyone on the other side of the conversation all stopped, you could hear them saying, "Two against one… That isn't fair." Or, "YEAH! BREAK A LEG!"

Kyo watched as the two thugs went after Sana, but while they ran, he _accidentally _set his walking stick out and tripped them both.

Sana turned and found them sprawled on the ground, "Alright then…" She went into a practiced formation, crouching to one leg supporting her body, with her hands blocking from shoulder width, "When you toddlers learn to walk, you can have first dibs on punching. I feel generous!"

The two boys collected themselves back together and ran after her, but Sana seemed as if she was vanishing and popping up right behind them.

_God she's fast… _Kyo was watching her intently, he forgot everything he was there for, and even he couldn't tell where she was when she popped up in some other place.

Sana kicked at one of the boys and tripped him, once again she vanished.

But then the tables started to turn. Sana came back in the corner of the training area, now panting a sweating as she caught her breath. She closed her eyes and swallowed, trying to breath at a normal pace. But while she had her guard down, one of the boys grabbed her hand and threw her off across to the other side of the area. She tried to get herself back together, and then the other boy rolled her to her back and stepped on her stomach, slowly pressing harder and harder.

Sana started to cough in pain, but he wouldn't stop pressing.

Kyo couldn't stop watching, but it was kind of paining him to watch her suffer. _And I can call myself a fire bender… But I can't do anything. _He tried to think of how to help her. From behind his back, he made a small ember that set the earth bender's robe on fire; he screamed and got off of Sana to put the fire out. Sana weakly tried to rise up, but once she tried to get up, the other boy stepped on her hand.

She collapsed on the floor trying to hold back tears, but once his shoe cut into her hand that it started to bleed, he got off, smirking evilly. Sana licked the blood from her hand, but then he picked her up and shoved her into Kyo, "Try and stop us again and you'll get that ten times worse."

When Kyo caught Sana, he fell on the floor, and so did his glasses. When he looked, Sana's eyes were humongous. "Oh my…" She pulled away.

"What?" He touched his face, "Oh crap..." He grabbed her hands and ran out of the area, and slammed the door on their dorm, ready to explain everything.

In the room, Kyo locked the door quickly, but found Sana sitting on her bed in horror. "Oh man…" Kyo walked over to her, but she tried to get away. Through all the _agony _she was put into, she sure looked scared now. But through everything that was going on, he knew that she knew she was too scared to admit anything to anybody. He looked at her plainly, as she stared back with her big round eyes. And with much threatening, Sana agreed, she wouldn't say a word to a soul.


	4. Kyo's Letter

**This isn't necessarily a real chapter. But just to waste time, I thought that I'd write down what Kyo's first letter was to his commander once he silenced Sana.**

That night while Sana was sleeping (With a guilty conscience…) Kyo was with a scroll of paper as he wrote down his letter by a ember's light. Delicately he wrote down his notice of the earth nation's actions of life and war.

**Commander, Scout Kyo reporting.**

**I have not gotten any constant information that will be of key at the moment. But while researching the earth nation student's steps and fighting styles I have come to a conclusion.**

**While they are relatively quick, they do not rely on their speed. **(He decided not to mention Sana just yet into his letters.) **Their fighting style seems to revolve on no mercy when they are in dept with their opponents.**

**While watching a fight this morning, the winner had the opponent in a painful stab to the hand. But seeing that this was a school fight, it did not get _drastically _bloody. **

**They seem to also compose upon swift movements and blocking the opponent as nectar to their success at times, especially at blocks to the legs, but their faces seem to be un-protected most of the time.**

**We'll have them eating out of our hands soon.**

**Kyo**

With adding his name to the end, he tied up the scroll and headed to the window. Of course he couldn't send this by postage. With his left hand he shook it for a second until a blue-purplish fiery ember popped out. He placed the scroll on it, it didn't burn. But he then aimed toward a part in the sky, obviously navigating the seas. He then threw the ember into the air, until it disappeared above the clouds, soon to find its messenger's target.

It flew across the sky like a purple star, flying through the sky, with all the other stars trying to evade – staying out of its way. No one wanted to.

"No one will."


	5. Kyo's Family

**Heh. I left you all waiting for quite a while! Sorry for being so…. _LAZY!_ Heh. With the holiday vacation and everything. Not to mention that I got a nice big state of brain dead… ism. .**

Kyo woke up on the Sunday morning with heavy eyelids. Slowly waking up to the sound of sniffling by the window sill. He looked through the corner of his eye to see Sana digging her face into her arms as she sobbed. He cocked his head, sitting up from his bed he slowly started to inch toward her. He gently tapped her on the shoulder, "Er… You okay?"

Sana didn't reply, she stopped crying but just continued to hide her face in her arms.

"_Can you hear me_?" He said slowly and quietly, but then started to tap on her head, _"Hello?"_

Sana shoved his hand away, "Go away…" She said in a airy voice, which seemed throbbed and overtaken by tears.

"Are you crying about_ me?"_He asked raising an eyebrow, "Am I _really _that bad." He joked.

Sana rose her head up slowly and stared with weary dark brown eyes, "Actually… Yes it is about you." She gave him a dark look of hatred.

"What did I do?" But he had already had his questions answered. For he saw a small sketch of a family. One mom, on dad, two boys that were probably twins; about twelve, and they were both playing around with a small girl, smiling; of course it must have been Sana, she looked about five.

"Ah…" He frowned, "Your family."

Sana nodded slowly, still staring at him with blank cold eyes.

"Are you trying to drill a hole in my face?" He snapped rolling his eyes.

She jerked her head away and then resumed staring at the picture.

Kyo couldn't help feeling remorse and some pity for her, "You know… We don't have to be enemies. I mean, the whole point of war is to make peace right?" He didn't know where he was going to go with this. But anything to shut her up.

Sana raised her head again and thought for a minute, "I guess so…"

"Yeah, I guess so…" She wasn't quite certain where he was going with this either.

"Er… You wanna go down to the beach? Sea air usually calms people down."

She stared at her feet, but then slightly nodded.

"That's the spirit! Come on," He grabbed his walking stick and glasses, "I could use some sea air myself!"

They walked down to the beach in about twenty minutes, it was deserted. Sunday mornings were usually a day just to go down to the shopping centre and buy some food for the coming week.

Sana plopped down on the sand, and stared blankly at the sky. She hadn't planned to make conversation with the hot head.

Kyo sat down beside down beside her, to make some conversation might be a good resource for his report. "So…" He said tapping his hands to his knees, "Um… What was your family like?" It was the first thing that popped into his head.

Sana's face darkened once again, she obviously was very protective of her family. "None of your business fire eater…"

"Harsh." He smirked, "Real harsh." He shrugged, "If I told you about my family, would you tell me about yours?"

Sana thought it over for a bit, slowly starting to lighten up to him. "Well… I suppose it's only fair." But she kept a cautious aura either way.

Kyo nodded, bowing his head, "Well…" He thought of where to begin. "I had one older brother, and a step-sister. My mom died giving birth to me, so my dad had to take care of us until he got called out to the war."

Some of this did spark Sana's attention, but very vaguely.

"And so then my brother began taking care of my little stepsister and me. Oh – she wasn't neccecarily my stepsister. We adopted her from my mom's brother's family when they all got wiped out in the war. So neccecarily she's my cousin, but I always like calling her my stepsister."

"Oh… It must be awful to lose so much family." Sana replied quietly, still very prone, but starting to gain interest in his story. She turned to his direction, "Did anything ever happen to your brother?" She looked like a small child, hungry for a story.

Kyo couldn't help smiling, "Well… My brother was like a war hero in our village. They called him the 'ghost of the demon', after my dad. He learned everything from my dad, blocking, sparring, and even sneak attacks. And my brother and I started to fight together. When the water nation came around to our nick of the woods, well; you could tell that he and I wiped the battle field."

Sana nodded, scooting forward, "Yeah, what happened?"

"Well," Kyo scooted closer to her to add drama to his story, "While we were fighting, an in coming ice burg from the water nation commander came sliding by my brother. And let me note to you that that ice burg was **_huge_**." He expanded his arms, "and I caught sight that my brother was going to be flattened, so I charged at him and tackled him out of the way."

Sana thought about it trying to imagine it, but Kyo did that for her when he jumped and rolled across the sand, but came back up to his feet. Sana clapped delighted. Of course she must have forgot about her protective aura, "But what happened to your sister?" She asked, her big brown eyes still staring at Kyo with great interest.

_Wow… I didn't know that girls her age still had this kind of spirit… _Kyo thought to himself. "Well, my sister,"

"Or cousin," Sana added smiling.

"Or cousin," he repeated smiling, "wasn't really that big of a fighter. She was probably familiar with a fireball, but nothing that would be very helpful in battle. So I had to hide her in the cellar under our house. She had however, been more surprising than I had thought her to be. She had escaped from the cellar, and she knocked about three of them cold with a flame kick."

Sana nodded, blinking with interest. "Did you all get out of the battle alive?"

Kyo frowned slightly, "Er… No."

Sana didn't frown, but she did look to him for an explanation.

"Well… My brother and I escaped the battle with only a few scars, but my little sister… When got killed with an icicle between the eyes."

Sana winced, "Oh... I… I'm sorry."

Kyo smiled, "Don't worry. I have gotten pretty immune to loss."

"Well still. I'm sorry."

Kyo sat by her, "It's alright… So, what were your family like?"

Sana frowned, "Well…. It's kind of a long story."


	6. Sana's Tears

"Well?" Kyo asked smirking, he leaned back into the sand like a chair as he got comfortable, and "I'm listening."

Sana looked to her feet and just went silent for a minute, "Okay." She turned over to Kyo, "Well, in my family there were me, my mom, dad, and my two twin brothers Marco and Rhys. We all lived down in the south on a small earth nation island.

And we… We were part of the kingdom's council, er- at least my parents were. And so we got the best luxuries."

"No wonder you're so spoiled." Kyo teased.

She smiled and shook off his comment, "Well, in my home, probably the only things that we did were considered down in the gardens by our house. The landscape was perfect for throwing mud balls after rain storms. I wasn't neccecarily the best with bending, but I was…" she shook her hand, "A not-bad-not-good bender."

"Well that's something that I've always wondered," And he meant this truthfully, "How do you play around with mud?"

Sana thought of how to show him, her eyes rolled from the sky to the ground, and then she got a sinister idea. She cupped a hand and scooped up some of the sand and then threw it into the seawater. When she pulled it out it was all wet and starting to clump together, she then put her hands over the mass and when she showed it to him again it was in a small orb, "Like this. We would take these balls, and throw them at each other."

"Ah, like a snowball fight."

"I suppose so… You just get a lot messier." She threw the balls at his clothes and it exploded all over him. "See what I mean?"

"Hey! That's not fair!" He said trying to fling the mud off.

Sana put a hand on his chest and the mud collected off of his clothes and back into a ball in her hand. "You don't need to get all… Stupid, as I like to say."

Kyo rolled his eyes, "Well… Why don't you continue and tell me about your family while I try to get the sand out of my hair…." He put his head to the side and started to comb throw his hair with his fingers and the sand fell out.

"Fine," Sana threw the ball of sand over her shoulder, "Well… Marco and Rhys were about… Three years older than me. So they should be about eighteen now."

Kyo nodded as he continued to shake the sand out of his hair, "Uh huh… But wait – are they still alive?"

Sana looked at him with a disturbed glance, "Yes they are still alive." She said in an offended tone, but then her face softened, "I hope…"

Kyo turned, "Oh really." He shook some sand out of his boot, "Sorry to say I doubt that they are."

Sana turned to him and glared, "Don't be so cold…"

"Well it's true, Sana. Sorry, but this war has destroyed many things."

"Yes but-"

"I'm really sorry to have to break it to you, but I honestly believe that… Well, they aren't alive. I am sorry to say but-"

"You're wrong!" She insisted, "They're still alive; no matter what you say!"

Kyo just blinked, speechless on how to respond. He frowned as he saw a tear started to trickle down her cheek. "Sana…" He tried to wipe the tear, but she swatted his hand away. "I'm sorry to give you that truth but-"

"Please… Just leave me alone," She turned away from him.

He insisted on helping her, "Come on," He grabbed her hand, "I know that it's hard, but you need to learn to accept the truth."

She sniffed, "But…"

"Don't worry; things will be okay if you told someone about it?"

She looked at Kyo and frowned, "I'm not sure…"

"You know, if there is anything you wanna say, I'm here…"

Sana frowned and you could see yet another tear go down her face, which Kyo wiped away.

And with that touch, Sana felt warmer than she had in a long time; Warm, and safe.

Sana stared blankly at his chest, blind to everything else in the surrounding. Without a thought, she wrapped her arms around him, and began to sob into his shirt, "I miss them so much…" She whispered.

Kyo sat there speechless and startled for a moment, but then looked down to her with soft eyes and stroked her hair. Even this to him was too much to bear, just to see someone cry like this, of course was a heartbreaking thing. Even he when he was younger, he had cried over his family's death, but now all he could do for her was replace the family that she missed, or at least, make her feel loved as she had.

"Don't worry… I'm here."


End file.
